Nama fails to stop developer being paid €5,000 a week

THE NATIONAL Asset Management Agency has secured a worldwide freezing order in a UK court stopping developer Ray Grehan from selling any of his assets but has failed to stop him being paid €5,000 a week in living expenses.

The State loans agency successfully secured an order in the high court in London preventing Mr Grehan from selling assets, following legal actions in the US and Canadian courts to stop the sale or transfer of two apartments.

This is the first time Nama has secured a court order against a developer freezing any movement or sale of assets around the world.

The court approved the payment of living expenses of €5,000-a-week to Mr Grehan in the face of objections from Nama, which wanted them capped at €1,250. The judge said Nama could apply to have them reduced, which the agency now plans to do.

Mr Grehan had no comment on the latest court ruling against him.

Since securing a judgment of €269 million against him in Ireland courts last month, Nama has pursued Mr Grehan overseas to block the sale of foreign assets.

Nama secured a court order in London last month preventing the sale of a £5.6 million apartment in the luxury One Hyde Park development, which the agency says is beneficially owned by Mr Grehan.

The developer has told Nama that the property, which is owned by offshore companies, is held by a trust in favour of his family.

Nama secured a court injunction in Canada on November 29th stopping the transfer of his apartment at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto to a firm called 2295661 Ontario Inc for no consideration.

The transfer took place eight days after Nama secured the €269 million judgment in Ireland.

National Asset Loan Management, a Nama subsidiary, applied to the supreme court in New York on December 5th to block the sale of an apartment worth $1.1 million (€863,000) near the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan.

Nama took the action after it discovered in an email sent on his behalf that Mr Grehan planned to sell the apartment, which he acquired for $1.4 million in 2007.

Mr Grehan had sent a letter to Allied Irish Banks seeking to pay off the $270,000 balance owing on a $350,000 mortgage on the property from a sale that was likely to net him more than $500,000.

Alan Harte, a solicitor at Nama, told the New York court in an affidavit that if the sale was not stopped, Mr Grehan could take “the substantial equity” in the property, causing Nama’s “global search” for his assets to continue.

Nama believes “Grehan has no intention of voluntarily satisfying any part of the judgment debt and will seek to resist enforcement at every turn”, said Mr Harte.

He cited interviews Mr Grehan gave to The Irish Times and RTÉ in September in which he said he was reluctant to repay his debts to Nama.

Mr Grehan owes the agency a total of €650 million.